[MrFixr55]

The issue with mice is hantavirus. In addition to getting sick from it, it builds up antibodies. Since mice are used to develop many immunochemistry assays for such things as therapeutic drugs, Troponin (an assay used to determine heart disease), PSA, CA-125, etc. Assays to detect prostate and other cancers), hantavirus antibodies can affect these assays.

In the clinical lab, the disinfectant most used was one part of household bleach (5.25% NaOCl) to 9 parts of water. This was referred to as 10% bleach. Keeping a surface wet for 20 minutes will kill just about anything. This protocol was required to allow shipment of any component coming in contact with fluids in a clinical lab running at Biosafety Level 2 as no longer contaminated. I have used both this and 70% IPA (Isopropyl alcohol) as a cleaning agent. Having to keep the surface wet is an issue for the outside of the cabinet, but not necessarily for the inside.

I start out by wiping the outside of the cabinet with 70% Isopropanol, then cleaning the cabinet with normal cleaners used for wood. I then wipe again with 70% Isopropanol.

For the inside, I am more aggressive, as the surfaces are not always visible.

For extremely dirty chassis, I tape over sockets and holes in transformers, then it is off to the shower and a good hosing down of the chassis surface, then wiping and keeping wet with the above mentioned disinfectants, then air drying, either with or without heat, depending on how long I am going to wait before powering up. In one of the NRI Radio course pamphlets, they described remediation for radios that were in floods. Their first step was to "hose it down", as it has already been soaked, but in muddy water, so more water couldn't hurt the device more than it was.

Another method of decontamination is to heat the unit in an oven to 250 deg F for at least 20 minutes that the entire device attains this temperature. Just make sure that you do this with your wife out of the house. In addition, this may damage important parts such as caps, IF transformers, plastic parts, etc. I have not tried this on a wood cabinet, but I think that it takes a temperature higher than 250 deg. When finished, remove the device and heat the entire oven to 450 Deg F to ensure that anything left in the oven is killed. Lysol used to contain Cresols and Phenols. Its active ingredient currently is Benzalkonium Chloride.